bigger family
by xCaligula
Summary: Shingen and Emilia have a baby. Due to limited character tagging, there are characters who play a role in this story who don't get tagged and they are Anri, Erika, Walker, Saburo, Kadota, and Shizuo.
1. Chapter 1

The baby in Emilia's arms feels too small to be real. It's far from her first time holding an infant, and she's even held a newborn before, but somehow, it still seems much too small. Maybe it's just the whole situation that doesn't feel real; maybe it's the fact that she's holding her own daughter, that she's really a mother now, that's throwing her off so much. Maybe it's just her own exhaustion making everything feel so surreal and maybe the size of the baby has nothing to do with it at all.

But, exhausted or not, she can't imagine sleeping any time soon. If she could stay in this moment forever, she would, and she can't stop smiling, can't stop staring at the tiny face and taking in the features, picking out her own and her husband's. Their daughter. She hasn't got a good look at her eyes yet, but there's a bit of sparse, black fuzz on top of her head. Right now, she is asleep, her lips slightly parted.

A hand rests on Emilia's shoulder and she looks up at her husband with a smile. "Isn't she beautiful?" she asks. It's about the fifth time she has, but his answer has been the same every time.

"Of course she is," says Shingen, and every other time, he's added something about her taking after either one of them, as if it should all be obvious, but this time, he doesn't. All he does is repeat himself. "Of course she is."

It's been a long day for the both of them, and he's just returned from calling Shinra to let him know that everything went well. Now is the first time they've been able to be alone with their daughter, and perhaps the first chance he's really had to let it sink in. They don't speak for a very long time, and even when Emilia feels close to falling asleep, she manages to fight to keep her eyes open. She's been thinking a lot recently that she's the happiest she's ever been, and she is so very glad that things just keep getting better and better.

~X~

"That was my dad," Shinra says when he hangs up the phone. "Everything went really well, and Emilia had the baby with no complications."

" _That's great, I'm glad everything was okay for her_ ," Celty types in response. " _What was it that they named her again?_ "

"Shinkei," he replies. "I wonder when it's going to be okay to go visit them. I really want to see her!"

" _Is it weird thinking of her as your little sister?_ "

"Honestly, it's not the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me, but it definitely rates." He laughs, shaking his head slightly. "Really, though, when I think about how the _marriage_ was sprung on me...it's almost weirder that this isn't the first I'm hearing about her."

" _Do you think they're all going to be okay?_ "

"Aw, of course they will. What's the worst that could happen?"

" _I'm not sure I even want to know the answer to that._ "

~X~

Emilia is able to go home the next day, and so, a few days later, Shinra and Celty go to pay them a visit. Celty doesn't want to admit how absolutely terrified she is of the baby, but she is. She's never had to hold an infant before! In fact, she doesn't know anything about them, and she isn't sure what she's going to do if someone tries to hand Shinkei off to her, or asks her to help out with something.

However, she forgets most of her concerns as soon as she's let in and sees the way Emilia is beaming. The woman has always been an incredibly cheerful person, but this is different. Her eyes are brighter, somehow, and her smile softer; the word radiant comes to mind as Celty watches her with the baby. It almost seems like she won't want to let her go, but when Shinra sits down beside her, she offers to let him hold her.

"Support her neck," she says, and he nods, saying that he knows about that. When he takes her into his arms, he rests a hand on the back of her head. Still, after a moment, Emilia repeats it. "Make sure you support her neck." She looks so concerned that it's almost comedic, and it's the clearest Celty has ever heard her speak, meaning she must have put a lot of work into learning that specific phrase.

"I know, I've got her," he says, trying to sound reassuring. Shinkei looks up at him sleepily with bright green eyes. "Look at her, she's not even crying! She's so good, isn't she, Celty?"

"Just please support her neck," Emilia says again.

"I am, see?"

"Listen to your mother," Shingen scolds.

"But I _am_! See? I've got her neck!" says Shinra, and then he sighs. "Do you want to try holding her, Celty?"

Celty jumps, and waves her hands in front of her before pulling out her PDA. " _I couldn't! I've never held a baby before, so I'm afraid I might do something wrong._ "

"Well, you're never going to learn if you don't try."

" _Don't worry about me! Spend as much time holding your sister as you want._ "

"But I want you to hold her too," he replies. "After all, she's your little sister too, right?"

Even after all this time, talk like that still gets Celty a bit flustered, and in order to distract herself from _that_ , she ends up letting Shinra pass the baby into her arms while he explains how he was holding her. Celty cups Shinkei's head in her hand as Emilia reminds her to support her neck, and brings the baby up a little bit closer to herself.

Just like with Shinra, she doesn't protest or cry at all and just stares up, slightly curious. Even the helmet in place of a face doesn't seem to bother her- though, given her parents, that isn't actually all that unexpected. It's a strange experience, and Celty isn't sure how to describe how she's feeling about this, but, even though she's nervous, she knows that she's happy.

Maybe, she thinks, this might not be as hard as it seems, and maybe she'll be able to get used to this, maybe even become good at this. Eventually, she hands Shinkei back to Emilia because she can tell the mother is getting restless and because she's still afraid of accidentally hurting her, but the rest of the afternoon, she has a hard time looking away, even when Shinkei eventually drifts off to sleep. When it's time for them to leave, she finds herself looking forward to when they get to visit again.

But she doesn't consider the possibility of being left _alone_ with Shinkei, or the fact that she and Shinra are going to be the go-to babysitters, despite neither of them having any relevant experience.


	2. Chapter 2

She's sure that Shinra just wasn't thinking, or maybe that he was giving her more credit than she deserved, but whatever the case, he's gone before she has a chance to beg him to stay with her. It's been about five months since Shinkei was born and both of her parents have returned to working regularly, and Emilia has finally become comfortable with letting others stay with her child.

Shinra and Celty have watched Shinkei before, for a few hours at a time, but usually, she's sent to a daycare that has a program for infants when her parents go to work. Today, for whatever reason, the daycare is closed, and she was left with the two of them last minute. And then Shinra had gotten called away and disappeared, and now Celty is sitting alone, watching Shinkei play on the floor.

The little girl is learning how to sit on her own, and she'll start to pull herself up only to give up and lay back down on her little mat before rolling over again and again. It's cute and fairly fun to watch, but what about when she gets bored or starts crying? Celty doesn't even remember how they're supposed to feed her! She ends up spending a while looking over the instructions on the box of formula, but she isn't sure she can do this part by herself and she tries not to panic.

 _Maybe Shinra will be back before it's time to feed her_ , she thinks, even though she knows it isn't likely. She realizes that she left Shinkei by herself when she went to the kitchen and runs back in a hurry, only to see that she's still just trying to sit up. Joining her on the floor, Celty helps Shinkei up and the baby giggles when she's seated, reaching to grab at Celty's fingers.

 _I've got this_ , she thinks. _I've totally got this. She's doing just fine. She's even laughing! There's nothing to worry about here at all!_

And for a little bit longer, that really seems to be the case. Shinkei is content to sit there and play with Celty's fingers and, later, a rattle, but then she starts to fuss and once again, Celty has to remind herself to not panic. In her mind, she runs through a list of all the things she's supposed to do.

 _It's still not time for her to eat yet...she must be tired. Yeah, I think it's almost her nap time!_ She's relieved that she's figured this out, but then the unease creeps back in. It'll be the first time she's had to do this too, and she gently cradles Shinkei in her arms, trying to bounce her the way she's seen Emilia do it. At first, she thinks she's doing it too hard, but when she slows down, Shinkei is barely moving at all and she starts wailing.

It takes much longer than she thinks it should have to find a rhythm that the baby is comfortable with, but eventually, the crying slows down and she starts to snuggle closer to Celty, her eyes drooping. She's surprised that she's able to get her this calm without a lullaby of some sort, since Emilia almost always sings something to her before she goes to sleep, but that isn't really an option and she's glad that it doesn't seem to be presenting a problem.

Finally, Shinkei drifts off to a solid sleep, and after a while, Celty lays her down on the couch and builds a little fort of pillows around her so that she won't roll off. If she could sigh, she probably would, and she sinks down into a chair, glad for the chance to relax. Of course, that's the moment when her phone goes off, giving her news of a job.

She knows that she should probably turn it down because she has to stay with the baby, but then the idea of ditching the baby, of pawning Shinkei off on someone else, enters her mind and, as wrong as it is, it's a very appealing idea. The fact of the matter is, she has no idea what she's doing, and she can't help herself; she sends a text to Anri and and gets up to write out as many instructions as she can remember.

She decides not to text Shinra about this until she's already on her way out the door.

~X~

Anri doesn't want to respond to Celty at all, and she certainly doesn't want to go over to babysit Shinra's little sister, but she doesn't want to say no and she feels like she owes Celty quite a few favors. And so that is how she finds herself mostly alone in Celty's apartment, watching the baby sleep and wondering what she's going to do.

She has absolutely no experience in childcare, and even though it isn't hard to figure things out with older kids, babies are another matter entirely. Sitting down, she folds her hands in her lap and sits stiffly, until Shinkei starts to cry and she jumps, hurrying over to see what's wrong. She picks the baby up but this doesn't do anything to calm her down, and then she hurries to the kitchen to try and fix her a bottle, but she realizes that she has nowhere to sit Shinkei and has to try and do it one-handed.

The babies cries get louder and louder, and Anri knows that she just can't do this by herself. Fighting back her own tears, she returns to the couch and lays Shinkei down, quietly apologizing before abandoning her to make the bottle. She can hear Shinkei wailing the whole time and feels absolutely terrible, but she can't really think of any other options.

However, even once she returns to Shinkei and starts feeding her, it isn't long before she's spit the bottle back out and started crying again. "I'm sorry," Anri says, not even audible over the sound of the baby's screaming, and she keeps blinking back tears, trying to put on a brave face even though she has no idea what to do to fix this.

The fact of the matter is, she doesn't know what she's doing and she isn't going to be able to pull this off on her own. From the beginning, she should have asked someone else for help or told Celty to go to someone else, and now, she's going to call for help before it gets out of hand. She dials Mika's number, but the other girl doesn't pick up, and after that, Anri tries Saki, but again, she doesn't get an answer.

Finally, she decides to go to another one of her friends, an older girl that has promised to always have her back, no matter what the situation. Though she isn't sure what Erika will do when handed a screaming infant, she also hadn't known what Mika or Saki would do, and she doesn't really know _anyone_ with relevant experience.

And so Anri calls for help, and Erika is sympathetic. "She left you alone with the baby like that? Well, I don't know what I can do but we can at least try to help. We'll be over in a few minutes!"


	3. Chapter 3

When Anri hears a knock at the door, she still hasn't managed to get Shinkei to stop crying, despite trying everything Celty has listed. Opening the door, she nearly cries with relief to see Erika, Kadota, Walker, and Saburo all there. She hadn't thought about the others tagging along when she'd initially called Erika, and when Erika had said "we", she'd felt a little guilty knowing that they were all getting dragged into this, but now she can't help but feel glad that she has more hands to help out.

"Alright, so what's the problem?" asks Erika, as if the wailing child isn't a dead giveaway. The four of them step into the apartment, and Anri explains everything she's done and that none of it has worked.

"Are you sure having a bunch of strangers over like this isn't going to make it worse?" asks Kadota. "I mean, maybe she's just nervous cos she's not used to being around you."

"I'm sorry," Anri says softly, and no one is sure if she's saying it to him or to the baby.

"You said her name was Shinkei, right?" asks Erika and Anri nods. "How about you let me hold her for a little bit?" The younger girl looks so relieved to hand Shinkei off that Erika feels a stab of pity for her.

"We've got lots of stuff to try and cheer her up!" Walker says, grinning, and at Anri's nervous expression, Kadota is quick to reassure her.

"Nothing flammable. I made sure of that." She breathes a sigh of relief that she hadn't realized she was holding back.

"Aw, come on, Dotachin," Erika says, raising her voice over the increasing volume of Shinkei's wailing, "you know he's not stupid enough to bring that around a baby!" She doesn't seem to be having much luck herself as she bounces the baby in her arms, and finally, Saburo steps in and offers to hold her for a little bit.

"Has anyone tried singing anything to her?" he asks. When he's met with silence, he sighs and says, "Well, then, I guess that's what I'll try." He sits down on the couch, cradling her, and clears his throat, his cheeks slightly pink from embarrassment. Still, he follows through on his promise, and begins singing quietly, barely even audible over the sound of the crying.

Even so, it seems to be having an effect, and Shinkei gets quieter and quieter, until she's only fussing slightly. With the room slightly quieter, the others can clearly make out the song he's singing, and Erika and Walker brighten considerably.

"Hey, isn't that one of Ruri Hijiribe's songs?" Walker asks.

"What kind of question is that?" replies Erika. "Of course it is, I sang it in karaoke just last week!" The two of them stand behind the couch, craning their necks to look over Saburo's shoulders as they join him, and the three voices actually work well enough together that Shinkei quiets down altogether.

"There," says Kadota, "at least we got her to calm down, huh?"

"Thank you so much," Anri says. "I'm sorry I had to bother you all, but I really don't have any experience babysitting, and Celty really needed my help..."

"It's no bother at all!" he replies. "We're all friends, and I don't mind giving you _or_ Celty a hand with anything. And I know these guys feel the same way. None of us were busy today, so it's really not a problem at all."

Anri smiles and then turns her attention back to the singing trio, and for a while, she and Kadota quietly watch their friends singing until Saburo starts a song that Erika and Walker don't know. Once he realizes that they aren't singing along with him, he stops suddenly, blushing, and stammers, "W-well, does anyone else want to hold her? Now that she's calm, I mean?"

"You should hold her, Dotachin!" says Erika. "You've got that whole fatherly air about you!"

"Yeah, yeah," Walker agrees. "You're that big brother type!"

"I have no idea what either one of you are going on about," he mutters, but he sits down next to Saburo and lets his friend pass the baby to him. To Anri's surprise, it seems immediately natural, and Kadota smiles warmly at Shinkei and holds a finger close to her face that she reaches for and tugs at.

"Oh wow," Erika breathes, "just look at the two of them."

"Even babies think he's cool," Walker says. Anri can't help giggling at the two of them, feeling at ease for the first time since Celty called her. The rest of the afternoon goes rather smoothly for them, and between the five of them, they're able to follow all of the instructions left and keep Shinkei from getting too terribly upset again.

At some point, Erika had snatched Kadota's hat, and it droops on Shinkei's head, falling over her eyes whenever she moves too much. She seems to absolutely love it, however, and he isn't sure he's going to be able to bring himself to take it from her when it's time for them to leave. Walker pulls out the DVDs he brought along, claiming that he's got the perfect anime to start her out on, and he and Walker take turns holding her and pushing the hat out of her eyes while they watch a slice-of-life comedy. Despite themselves, Anri, Kadota, and Saburo get wrapped up in it as well.

Eventually, the door opens and Shinra calls out, "Anri, are you still here?" He steps into the room and says, "Oh, hey, guys. I didn't know you were here too."

Anri rises quickly and says, "I'm sorry, I invited them over. I hope that's okay. I just didn't know...I mean...Celty asked me to look after the baby, but I needed a little help..."

"Aw, that's fine, Anri," replies Shinra, smiling. "I still really appreciate you coming over like this, and I'm sure Celty does to. Come to think of...maybe I shouldn't have left her by herself either..." He looks thoughtful for a moment before catching sight of the television, and before long, he's watching as well, his little sister sitting in his arms. The five guests make no mention of when they're going to leave, and when Celty returns home, she's surprised to see how many people are in her apartment.

Anri goes through the motions of apologizing to her as well, but Celty cuts her short with a message that reads, " _Please, don't worry about it. I should be the one apologizing to you! I wasn't sure what to do with her either, and it wasn't really fair of me to pawn her off on you like that._ "

"No, no! I'm always happy to help," she says, "and it was actually really fun once they got here, so don't feel bad..."

And so, Celty joins the others, and the seven of them make Walker and Erika's evening by watching their anime all the way through the first season, and by the time they've begun the second season, Shingen and Emilia arrive to pick up their daughter. Instead, they end up staying for a while, and everyone has dinner together as they marathon the show into the night.


	4. Chapter 4

Shinra had almost expected his father and stepmother to be less than pleased that they had so many people over when they were supposed to be watching the baby, but it was quite the opposite. Shingen later told him that Emilia had been delighted by all the people surrounding her daughter, and that she was so glad to see that she was growing up surrounded by so much love. He's glad to know he's not in any sort of trouble with him, but also a bit disappointed; he knows that this means they'll end up counting on him and Celty to watch Shinkei again.

In the mean time, he tries to do all the extra research he can, and ends up reading more parenting guides than the parents probably have. Celty is just as eager to learn, claiming that she never wants to be in a desperate situation like that ever again, and by the time Shingen _does_ finally call, saying that they're on their way over because something came up, the couple is a bit more confident than they were before.

"It'll just be for a few hours," his dad assures him. "Nothing all day, like last time. We just have some...errands we need to run, if you don't mind looking after her." But he says this as Emilia is handing Shinkei to him, so Shinra isn't sure why Shingen is saying it as if they have a choice.

He sighs once they're gone and says, "I wonder what came up so suddenly. Neither one of them said."

" _With those two, don't you think it's better not to ask?_ "

Shinra pauses to imagine possibilities and shudders. "Yeah...yeah, I think you're definitely right about that." He shakes his head several times to try and clear his mind before saying, "Alright, do you want to play with her for a little bit? What should we do?"

They end up sprawled on the floor along either side of her while she plays with some of her toys, and the first hour passes by without incident. When the doorbell rings, Shinra wonders if it's his parents back a little earlier than planned, but when he gets up to open the door, the person standing behind it is Shizuo.

"Huh? What are you doing here?" asks Shinra. Shizuo doesn't often stop by for no reason, and he hadn't said he was coming over at any point.

"Oh, well, I was wondering if Celty was home," he says, looking over Shinra to see her. "Yeah, I was just coming by to thank her, I ran in to her the other day and she helped me out with something, so..."

"She did, huh?" Turning around, he walks back over to her and Shizuo follows him. "What's that all about?"

" _Don't go getting jealous of something like_ that _!_ "

Shinra opens his mouth to say something else, but he's interrupted by Shizuo. "Do you guys have a baby over?"

"Yeah, we're watching my sister for a little while this afternoon."

"Huh. Is that weird for you?" he asks. "Having a little sister so much younger th-"

"I really, really, _really_ do not want to think about anything relating to that right now, okay?" For a moment, Shinra looks very tired before changing the subject and saying, "Do you want to see her for a little bit? You've never met her before, have you?"

"I don't know..." The other man seems hesitant, but Shinra ignores him and goes to pick up his little sister, holding her up so the two of them can get acquainted. As a rule, Shizuo doesn't let himself get too close to anything that small and fragile, so it's been a long time since he's been this close to a baby.

She stares at him, a serious look on her face, and it's pretty comical seeing a baby look like that. He wonders what she's thinking about and why she's looking at him so intently, which gets him thinking about what babies even think about to begin with. Absentmindedly, he asks her, "What's on your mind?" and a smile breaks out over her features as she starts to giggle.

"Aw, I think she likes you!" Shinra says, and Shizuo lifts a finger, just to see what she'll do with it. Without missing a beat, Shinkei reaches up and grasps his finger in one of her tiny fists, laughing harder, and he actually feels his heart give a little _flutter_ when she does. He starts to step back in surprise, more reflex than anything else, but when he does, Shinkei struggles in her brother's arms until her own arms are free, and she reaches for him, straining as she tries to get free.

"What's she doing?" he asks.

"She wants _you_ to hold her," replies Shinra, looking like he's struggling not to laugh. "I don't know _why_ , but I think she's taken quite the shine to you!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing!" he says quickly. "Say, do you want to hold her? She looks pretty determined, so..."

"I don't think that'd be a good idea," Shizuo replies, looking hesitant. He steps back again and says, "Sorry, kid, but I don't know. I don't wanna hurt you or anything like that."

Shinra pauses for a moment, before saying, "Are you sure you would? You seem pretty calm right now, and as long as you're careful."

Celty comes up beside him. " _Are you sure about this? You know Emilia would kill you if he broke your sister, right?_ "

Before Shizuo can say something, however, Shinkei starts to cry, reaching harder, and as much as he wants to stay practical, the sight of that breaks his heart. He takes a breath, steeling himself, before reaching out for her and taking her into his arms. It's the first time within his memory that he's actually held a baby, and she feels so fragile that he starts to panic before anything's even happened. In that moment, he realizes that he probably couldn't ever hurt her, not when he's already so worried about her. If anything, he thinks, he wants to protect the little thing.

He doesn't hold her for long because he still doesn't trust himself, but he ends up spending the rest of the afternoon in their apartment, and doesn't leave until after Shinkei has already been picked up. Once Shinra and Celty are alone again, she comments on the situation.

" _I want to say that was unexpected, but really, it kinda wasn't._ "

"I know what you mean. I mean, yeah, I was a little worried, but he's got a soft spot for kids. It's not really that surprising that he'd end up bonding with her like that." He smiles to himself and pauses for a moment. "What surprises me is just how many people have already gotten so attached to her. I never even counted on a little sister, much less everyone getting close to her before she's even walking!"

" _We have been having a lot more people over lately, I guess._ "

"You know why that is, right? It's cos you've got so many friends!" Shinra grins at her. "But, I've gotta say...I like spending time _alone_ with you a lot more."

" _Are you still feeling jealous, or something?_ " she teases.

"Well...that depends on what you'd do if I was," he replies, his grin shifting into a smirk.

" _I'd tell you to get over it._ "

"Wha- Celty! Don't be mean!"


	5. Chapter 5

The next day at work, Shizuo keeps catching himself talking about Shinkei. Vorona is confused by his fascination and Tom seems to find it hilarious. They end up discussing babies and parenting at great length, not even realizing how lost they get in the topic until a long time later. By that point, it's gone on so long that they've each gotten more acquainted with each other's would-be parenting styles than ever expected.

Tom jokes that if any of them had a child, it might take all three of them to raise it, but it comes out sounding less like a joke than he expected.

~X~

Time passes quickly and Shinkei grows up even quicker. Even though Shinra ends up seeing her fairly often, he still feels like every time he sees her, she's grown way too much. He _knows_ how fast kids are supposed to grow, but even so, seeing it up close like that is something else entirely. Celty is even more surprised, and frequently asks him if she's growing faster than she's supposed to, or if she's really old enough to be trying to walk already.

Having a baby sister at his age is more than a little weird, to say the least, and it's forced thoughts about his father and stepmother into his head that he would have been much better off _never_ thinking about, but he's happy for the both of them. His family has never been a conventional one, after all, and even if he was a bit put off by a stepmother coming into his life unannounced- and a _younger_ stepmother, at that- it wasn't long before he began to warm up to her, and it wasn't hard to see that Emilia and Shingen were really happy together. He can't say that he's upset with his father for remarrying, even with absolutely no notice, if Emilia makes him that happy.

And as for Emilia, it's been clear from the beginning that she married with family in mind, what with her attempts to try to be a maternal figure to him and Celty. Besides the age thing making it very weird, it was hard to adjust to something like that out of the blue, and she ended up as more of a friend than anything else. Now, she really is a mother to somebody, and anyone can tell that she's still overjoyed.

All in all, he thinks, having two new additions to his family wasn't so bad at all, and he had grown to love both Emilia and Shinkei.

~X~

"Do you think we could ask Shinra's parents if _we_ could be babysitters next time?" asks Erika out of the blue one day. "I don't even care if we don't paid, I just think it would be fun to do again!"

"Oh, yeah, definitely!" Walker agrees.

"Hey, speak for yourselves," protests Saburo, despite the fact that he'd probably do it free of charge again as well.

"What?" asks Kadota. "Do you guys want us to become a group of babysitters or something?" He chuckles at the idea, given the group's usual activities.

"We could run a daycare service right out of the back of the van!" Erika says, not realizing how ridiculous the idea sounds.

"And then when a mysterious child with an equally mysterious older sister appears, then I could probably-"

"Get your own damn van, then!" Saburo interrupts.

"I think it'd be better if we stuck to watching _one_ kid at a time," adds Kadota. "It took all four of us plus Anri to handle Shinkei, remember?"

"Okay, okay, okay, forget the daycare idea. But you _do_ want to babysit her again, don't you, Dotachin?"

~X~

Anri sometimes asks after Shinkei, just to see how she's doing, and Celty gets in the habit of taking several pictures whenever she's over, so that she can show Anri just how much she's growing. She wants to see if Anri thinks it's unusual too, but the young woman usually gets too caught up in how cute the pictures are to comment on the strange growing patterns of human infants.

~X~

Leaving for work in the morning is always an ordeal, even months and months after Shinkei is born. The first several times they dropped her off at the daycare, Emilia cried, and even now, it's nearly impossible for Shingen to drag her away. Of course, he isn't much more keen on leaving- even _he_ thinks a child should at least be a little bit older before being left without their parents- but work is work, and they aren't the first parents who've left their child in someone else's care during the daycare, and they won't be the last.

She's said a few times that she'd feel better if they could leave her with Shinra and Celty all the time, but he laughed at that, claiming that those two were hopeless with her and the fact that she made it out of their apartment relatively unscathed a few times was nothing but a fluke. This, of course, did not make Emilia feel much better, and it took him a lot of apologizing to convince her that he was joking and manage to soothe her.

Becoming a father again wasn't something he planned on, not even when they began dating, but as time went on, he began to realize just how much she wanted a family of her own. Sure, she would be welcomed into her, but he had known even then that that wouldn't always be enough for her, and so he had begun to think about what he would do if he ever had another child.

Her pregnancy hadn't been a surprise, and since they were trying for it, the symptoms had been incredibly obvious to him even at an early stage. Once it had been confirmed, the excitement in her eyes made everything so much more than worth it, and now, as he practically drags her to work, he's glad that he's been able to make her this happy. She deserves it, certainly, and he loves her and he loves their daughter, and he loves his son and how very accepting he's been of all these changes.

~X~

Emilia always finds herself counting the minutes when it's close to time to pick up Shinkei. After all these months, she's used to being separated from her daughter, but that doesn't mean she'll ever _like_ it, and she'll always feel much better when the family is together, when the three of them are home, or when they're with the rest of their family. Yes, she definitely likes it best when all five of them are together, and she's glad her daughter has such a big, loving family, and so many good friends.

Shinkei is growing up so fast it's astounding, and it isn't long before she starts trying to walk, before she starts trying to mimic the sounds other make and trying to form them into words. When she takes her first steps, she toddles right into Emilia's arms; when she says her first word, when she calls Emilia "mama" for the first time, she isn't sure if she'll ever be able to stop smiling or to stop crying.


End file.
